The Resilience of Italian Cinema and Its Global Stars

By the ULTIMATE Rome Editorial Team

Venice, Cinecittà and Neorealism (1932–1950s)

In 1932 Venice held the world’s first film festival, and in 1937 Rome opened Cinecittà, the great studio city on the Via Tuscolana that is still at work today.

After the war Italian directors took their cameras into the streets. Roberto Rossellini’s Rome, Open City won the Grand Prix at the first Cannes festival in 1946, and Vittorio De Sica’s Bicycle Thieves (1948) received an honorary Oscar: Neorealism, with its real locations and non-professional actors, changed film-making everywhere.

Cinecittà →

The golden age (1950s–1970s)

The 1950s and 1960s were the golden age. Federico Fellini’s La Strada won the first Oscar in the new category for foreign language films in 1957, and his La Dolce Vita the Palme d’Or in 1960; Luchino Visconti’s The Leopard and Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blow-Up won it too. Sergio Leone reinvented the western with Ennio Morricone’s music, and Sophia Loren won the Oscar for Two Women, the first for a performance not in English.

The modern era

Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor won nine Oscars; Giuseppe Tornatore’s Cinema Paradiso and Roberto Benigni’s Life Is Beautiful, for which Benigni won best actor, brought Italian cinema back to the Oscars; and Paolo Sorrentino’s The Great Beauty, a portrait of Rome itself, won in 2014.

Rome on film: La Dolce Vita, Roman Holiday and The Great Beauty →

Must-watch films: the classics

To understand Italian cinema, start with the classics, then the modern masters.

• Bicycle Thieves (Ladri di biciclette, 1948): Vittorio De Sica’s heartbreaking Roman story, the masterpiece of Neorealism.
• La Strada (1954): Fellini’s fable of a travelling strongman and his gentle assistant, the first winner of the Oscar for foreign language film.
• La Dolce Vita (1960): Fellini’s portrait of Rome’s high life, with Marcello Mastroianni and Anita Ekberg in the Trevi Fountain.
• The Leopard (Il Gattopardo, 1963): Visconti’s Sicilian epic with Burt Lancaster and Claudia Cardinale, winner of the Palme d’Or.

Must-watch films: the modern masters

• The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966): Sergio Leone’s great western, with Ennio Morricone’s unforgettable score.
• Cinema Paradiso (1988): Giuseppe Tornatore’s love letter to the movies, winner of the Oscar.
• Life Is Beautiful (La vita è bella, 1997): Roberto Benigni’s fable of a father in the Holocaust, winner of three Oscars.
• The Great Beauty (La grande bellezza, 2013): Paolo Sorrentino’s dazzling portrait of Rome, winner of the Oscar.

The stars

Italy has given the screen some of its most magnetic stars.

• Sophia Loren: the first actor to win an Oscar for a performance not in English, in Two Women.
• Marcello Mastroianni (1924–1996): the star of La Dolce Vita and 8½.
• Anna Magnani (1908–1973): the fierce heart of Rome, Open City and Oscar winner for The Rose Tattoo.
• Claudia Cardinale and Monica Vitti: the great stars of Visconti, Fellini and Antonioni.
• Ennio Morricone (1928–2020): the composer who won the Oscar for The Hateful Eight and an honorary Oscar for his life’s work.

Where to watch in Rome and Venice

In Rome you can tour the studios at Cinecittà, see classics at the Casa del Cinema in the Villa Borghese and catch new films at the Cinema Barberini. Every autumn the Rome Film Fest fills the city, and every late summer the Venice Film Festival, the oldest in the world, takes over the Lido.

Our advice: book a Cinecittà studio tour, then walk the Rome on film locations, from the Trevi Fountain to the Spanish Steps.

Cinecittà →   Casa del Cinema →   Cinema Barberini →   Rome Film Fest →   The Venice Film Festival: our Venice guide →

Hidden on the silver screen: international productions filmed in Italy

Italy is one of Hollywood’s favourite sets. Rome’s own film locations, from Roman Holiday to Spectre, are on our Rome on film page.

• Roman Holiday (1953), Rome: Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck on a Vespa, and the Mouth of Truth.
• The Godfather (1972), Sicily: the villages of Savoca and Forza d’Agrò played Corleone.
• The Talented Mr Ripley (1999), Ischia and Procida: the islands in the Bay of Naples.
• No Time to Die (2021), Matera: James Bond’s car chase through the ancient cave city.
• Call Me by Your Name (2017), Crema: Luca Guadagnino’s summer in Lombardy.

Rome on film →

The Italians of Hollywood

Italian-born talent helped to make Hollywood.

• Rudolph Valentino (1895–1926): born in Castellaneta, the first great romantic idol of the silent screen.
• Frank Capra (1897–1991): born in Bisacquino, Sicily, the director of It’s a Wonderful Life, three times winner of the Oscar for best director.
• Vittorio Storaro and Dante Ferretti: the cinematographer and the production designer, each with three Oscars.

Questions and answers